{"id":959,"date":"2019-11-19T12:54:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T12:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=959"},"modified":"2019-11-19T12:54:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T12:54:36","slug":"reflection-24-november-2019-c-thirty-fourth-sunday-of-year-c-feast-of-christ-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=959","title":{"rendered":"Reflection 24 November 2019 (C) Thirty-Fourth Sunday of Year (c) Feast of Christ the King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>Reflection &amp; Dialogue<\/em><\/strong><em>: Reflections on\nthe kingship of Christ<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his letters Paul rarely speaks of the kingdom of God.\nIn exhorting the Roman Christian community to live in harmony, he remarks: \u201cThe\nkingdom of God is not food and drink but righteous\nand peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). To the Corinthian\ncommunity, given to debates and personality cult, he writes that the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in the\ntransforming power of the Gospel (1 Cor 4:2). The author of the letter to the\nColossians, as can be seen in today\u2019s second reading, prays that the Christian\ncommunity there \u201cmay be strengthened with all power, according to God\u2019s\nglorious might, for all endurance, patience and joy, giving thanks to the\nFather who has qualified us to share in the inheritance on the saints in light.\nHe has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the <em>kingdom of his beloved Son<\/em>, in who we\nhave redemption and forgiveness of sins\u201d (Col 1:11-14). For Paul, then, the kingdom of God is a present reality as well as an\notherworld eternal one.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The kingdom\n of God was central to the\nteaching of Jesus. He proclaimed it coming in his teaching and miracles. He was\ndestroying the power of Satan. Without mention of the kingdom he also made\nhimself central to his mission. \u201cHe who loves father or mother more than me is\nnot worthy of me &#8230;; he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not\nworthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it and he who loses his life for\nme sake will find it\u201d (Matthew 10:37-39). Without mention of the kingdom the\napostle Paul stresses the centrality of Christ for believers and all creation.\n\u201cGod has highly exalted him, &#8230; that at the name of Jesus every knee should\nbow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that\nJesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11). The kingdom of God is centered on obedience, the\nobedience of Christ and the obedience of faith of believers. Christ was\nobedient to the Father, obedient even to death (Phil 2:8); he learned obedience\nthrough what he suffered (Hebrews 5:8). Acceptance of the Christian faith means\nobedience of heart and mind to Christ and his saving work. Paul had been given\nthe mission to \u201cbring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his (i.e.\nChrist\u2019s) name among all the nations &#8230; who are called to belong to Christ\u201d\n(Romans 1:5-6; see also Rom 15:18)). The mystery of the Father\u2019s saving plan,\nkept secret for long ages, revealed through Christ, the Church and Paul, was\nmade known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to\nbring about the obedience of faith\u201d (Rom 16:25-26). Believers are sanctified\nthrough obedience to Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2, 22). The life of Christians is\na success against all obstacles when their obedience is complete (2 Corinthians\n10:5-6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With regard to today\u2019s readings, we are reminded\nof the simple origins of the Davidic kingship in the anointing of David as king\nof all Israel; the second reading stresses the presence of the kingdom in this\nworld, a kingdom of light, in a life of freedom from sin, while the Gospel text\nstresses that Christ reigns as king from the cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflection &amp; Dialogue: Reflections on the kingship of Christ In his letters Paul rarely speaks of the kingdom of God. In exhorting the Roman Christian community to live in harmony, &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}